Back in May, Google announced during its I/O keynote even that it would be opening a new service called Google Play for Education that allows schools to easier find and distribute Google Play content to Android devices in an education environment. The new education only Google Play store is coming this fall, but today Google announced that developers can now submit their apps for inclusion in the store:

Starting today, you can use the Google Play Developer Console to mark your apps for inclusion in Google Play for Education, which is actively being piloted in schools across the country. Marking your app identifies it as targeted for the US K-12 educational market and queues it for evaluation by a third-party network of educators. These educators perform a first-pass qualification of apps, assigning the appropriate subject, grade, and common core standards metadata, while evaluating whether they meet the Google Play for Education criteria for classroom use.

Developers that do so now will have the opportunity to get in the store during the pilot program already taking place with select schools in the US:

Leading up to the fall launch, the Google Play for Education team is conducting an extensive series of pilots that include schools and students across the U.S. By marking your app for inclusion now, you will be getting your app into the hands of these schools and key influencers in the education technology community.

With Google Play for Education, rather than using credit cards in an education environment, teachers will be able to purchase bulk quantities of apps and charge licenses against a balance from the school’s purchase order. The Google Play for Education service will also allow schools that use Google Apps to instantly distribute an app to multiple devices in a school by setting up a Google Group.

Google has guidelines available for devs that are considering submitting their app to Google Play for Education and will be live streaming a panel on the program on Tuesday June 25th at 10:30 AM EDT from the International Society for Technology in Education Conference.